It's shaping up as a lively Sundance Film Festival for Australians next month with three more films and an installation added to a program that already includes the world premiere of two thrillers in competition. Matthew Bate's Sam Klemke's Time Machine, about a man who started obsessively filming his life in 1977, will premiere in the New Frontiers Film program. Oscar Raby's Assent,  an immersive documentary using virtual reality technology that centres on his father's experience of a visit by a Chilean military death squad in 1973, will screen in New Frontier Installations. In the shorts program are Kitty Green's documentary The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul, centring on girls auditioning to play the role of a famous Olympic figure skater, and Tim Marshall'sFollowers, a UK-Australian dark comedy about an elderly woman who befriends a young African man at her swimming class. Already announced for the world dramatic cinema competition are Kim Farrant's Strangerland, a mystery thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes as parents of two teenagers who go missing in the desert, and Ariel Kleiman's Partisan, a psychological thriller with Vincent Cassel as a father who has raised his teenage son as an assassin. Other Australians with films at Sundance include Margot Robbie (Z for Zachariah), Guy Pearce (Results), Toni Collette (Glassland), Ben Mendelsohn(Mississippi Grind), Bojana Novakovic(The Hallow) and Kodi Smit-McPhee, Mendelsohn again and producer Emile Sherman (Slow West). The chief executive of Screen Australia, Graeme Mason, says the selections demonstrate the breadth of projects the country is producing. "It is particularly special to have such an eclectic range of Australian projects invited to the festival, from shorts to feature films, to feature and immersive documentaries," he says.

Kidman's enthusiasm for first-timers

Having finished Kim Farrant's Strangerland and down to star in Garth Davis's Lion, Nicole Kidman has spoken about her enthusiasm for working with first-time directors. "I just love that the Australian film industry still takes a bet on people like Kim and gives them a chance," the Paddington star tells Short Cuts. "We've got to do that so we can build our unique Australian voices. That requires all of us getting behind first-time directors at different times in our lives and going 'come on – go for it, girl'. That's what I did with Kim." The Sundance bound Strangerland is Farrant's debut after working on documentaries, shorts and TV series. "People were like 'oh my gosh, you're going to shoot with a first-time director back in Australia?'," Kidman says. "I'm like 'yeah, why not?'" The Oscar winner will star with Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patelin Lion, a drama based on Saroo Brierley's book about tracking down his Indian mother as an adult. Then comes an American remake of the Argentinian thriller The Secret In Their Eyes with Julia Roberts. Kidman says with so many movies financed internationally, it's rare for her to work in Hollywood now. "I'm given enormous opportunities at times through I suppose [what you could call] Hollywood. But at the same time I'm always looking to work with the auteurs and the avant garde directors and they exist a lot of times on the periphery."

The Mule's opening is encouraging news for the film industry

The black comedy The Mule has had a bright opening on digital platforms. It has held the top position on the iTunes charts for Independent genre since opening almost three weeks ago. It has also ranked as high as eighth for all films, second for thrillers and dramas and fourth for comedies. And for the DVD and Blu-Ray release last week, The Mule has shipped almost 11000 copies. So how much revenue will that bring to the film? While conceding it is difficult to quantify, the head of digital at distributor Entertainment One, Louise Balletti, is very pleased with the figures. "The opening figures for digital have come in about five to six times greater than if it was just a [direct-to-video] title," she says. "So we're deeming it a success" Does she think other Australian filmmakers should be encouraged to bypass a cinema release based on the results? "I do," Baletti says. "We've seen so many films not perform at the box office. The fact that we're really pleased with the way this film has been received, there will probably be more people following suit." Directed by Angus Sampson and Tony Mahony, The Mule stars Sampson as a drug courier who refuses to deliver the contraband in his belly while under police guard in a hotel room. 

Mr Babadook gets traction in US release

Jennifer Kent's horror film The Babadook is expanding from a promising early release in the US. After taking more than $US100,000 in two weeks of mostly late-night screenings, distributor IFC Midnight says it will widen the release to top markets this weekend. The film was also number one on the iTunes horror charts last weekend. At the same time a crowdfunding campaign to create a real-life version of the pop-up book in the film has passed its target. With six weeks to go, close to 2500 books have been ordered at $80 each. Kent and illustrator Alex Juhasz have promised the book will be a scary memento of the film and "a perfect gift for the children of people you hate." As well as being nominated for six Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, including best film and director, The Babadook has won best first feature at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.

AACTA links with G'Day USA

Geoffrey Rush has announced an Australian marriage of sorts will take place next month. The president of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Art – or "prez" as he's known – has announced a partnership with the G'Day USA festivities in Los Angeles. The AACTA annual international awards, won in the past three years by the likes of Meryl Streep, Quentin Tarantino and Cate Blanchett, will be announced at G'Day USA at the Hollywood Palladium. Rush says the union comes after years of flirting between the pair. "I suppose you could say romantically, they had us at hello," he says. "Since then it's no secret that we've been dating." Locally, the AACTA Awards will take place in Sydney on January 29. In Los Angeles, seven international awards will be presented on January 31. Rush says they give Australia a voice during the Hollywood and British awards season and have steadily built in popularity. "That event has grown so quickly from an intimate playful little Aussie soiree in Soho House in LA to a kind of hot ticket," he says.

International deal for yowie horror film

News from the world of dangerous Australian creature films. Director Dane Millerd's horror pic There's Something In The Pillaga, about a killer yowie, has been picked up for international distribution by Black Wolf Media. And Waterborne, about a zombie kangaroo, has won best Australian short at Monster Fest in Melbourne. It has previously won awards at – wait for it – Abertoir Horror Festival in Wales and Fear Fete in Missouri. Writer-director Ryan Coonan wants to turn the short, which has a zombie kangaroo attacking a ranger on a deserted bush road, into a feature film. Not so much "Skippy, eat your heart out" as "eat someone else's heart out".

More acclaim for music documentary

There has been more recognition in Hollywood's awards season for Australian writer-director Alan Hicks'documentary Keep On Keepin' On. After making the final 15 shortlist for an Oscar nomination, it has been nominated for outstanding documentary at the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards. Centring on the special relationship between elderly jazz legend Clark Terry and blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin, it opens in Melbourne's Cinema Nova on December 18 and Sydney's Chauvel cinema on January 8.

Docklands claims successful year

Despite the still comparatively high value of the Australian dollar, Docklands Studio Melbourne is claiming to have its most successful year since the State Government assumed ownership in 2008. In its 10th anniversary year the studio has hosted the Australian features Sucker, Oddball and The Dressmaker as well as two international projects: the Pierce Brosnan-Fan Bingbing pic The Moon and the Sun and the sci-fi TV mini-series Childhood's End. "There's been such a diverse group of domestic and international projects through the studio in the past 12 months – with sets representing the Warrnambool coastline to the Palace of Versailles," says chief executive Rod Allan.

Hunger Games stays on top

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 has raced to $25 million at the Australian box office after staying on top of the charts for the third consecutive weekend. It took $3.04 million, relegating Ridley Scott's epic Exodus: Gods and Kings to a second-placed debut with $2.69 million. The family comedy Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, starring Australian Ed Oxenbould, opened decently with $1.18 million. There was no love for Turkey Shoot, Jon Hewitt's remake of an eighties exploitation pic, which took $1300 in five cinemas.

With AAP

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